President Trump spent a lot of time talking about prescription drug prices Monday. While it’s a topic that hits home for just about everyone, there are big differences between the largess of health care insurers and drug makers.

Publicly traded giants in Big Pharma peaked long ago in the midst of the blockbuster drug craze, which brought in huge moneymakers, but resulted in thin pipelines and an avalanche of cheap generic alternatives thereafter.

Shares of the biggest names in pharmaceuticals have a long way to go to get back to their all-time highs, having peaked a long time ago.

Big Pharma

Close

High

Date

GSK

$40.86

$69.50

Dec 1998

MRK

$63.34

$93.60

Dec 2000

LLY

$85.95

$103.80

Jul 2000

PFE

$35.98

$48.00

Jun 2000

The industry needs smarter regulations that will allow them longer shelf-life for patents and easier for competition. As for pricing vis-a-vis other nations, it just means the prices over there have to go higher. Last year, the top five selling prescription drugs saw limited pricing power and revenue increases, or in some cases, saw total sales decline.

Financials have been laggards this year but yesterday was the best performing sector as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) shares broke through key resistance. Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) are on the cusp of similar breakouts.

Crude Oil

Crude oil popped early, but West Texas Intermediate (WTI) settled below $52.00 despite Iraqi forces capturing oil-producing areas of Kirkuk. If we get a breakout through that huge resistance point, we should see a quick spurt north of $55.00.